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Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Fuel

Andrew / June 2, 2008 12:02 AM

My dad's side has a reunion every other year, at a lake resort in eastern Ohio. It's fun and a little boring, but good to catch up with cousins I otherwise wouldn't see.

My mom's side used to meet up for a picnic every couple years, but it's happened less and less as my grandparents' generation has passed away.

R / June 2, 2008 1:13 AM

My siblings and I get together in the flesh once yearly, but we started a deal recently where we hold a monthly conference call to catch up.

m / June 2, 2008 8:23 AM

we dont necessarily throw reunions, but i think its because ive had a cousin from each side get married/have a kid baptised every other year for about the past 10 years. we generally all get together for those kinds of things. every once in a while my dad's cousins have a reunion and i have to re-teach myself everyone's names and how i'm related to them. my father died when i was really young, as did his parents, so my mom and i sometimes forget who we're talking to and have never found the best way to ask.

Pete / June 2, 2008 9:40 AM

My mom's family has one every three years. Fortunately, so far we've been able to avoid hosting one.

Jason / June 2, 2008 10:01 AM

do funerals count?

skee bop / June 2, 2008 1:45 PM

My family has been meeting up in North Carolina at the beach every year since I was 7 (now mid twenties). There are enough spouses, kids, cousins, aunts and uncles at this point to total well over 100 people. We usually go home with some good stories and a few new names to keep track of...

Rory / June 2, 2008 5:25 PM

We don't have reunions, probably because multiple divorces and shunnings and fall-outs have rendered my extended family into too many factions! If we DID have reunions, I'd want them to be on a yacht on the Lake.

Steven / June 3, 2008 12:57 AM

My family on my mother's side has a problem. My mother and three of her siblings (now deceased) were conservative, teetotaling christians. Four other siblings were boozers, including my gay uncle Kenny. The ninth, Aunt Joyce, sat on the fence, going to church every week but also enjoying her PBR. Family reunions were always held someplace dry because the christians just can't stand letting anyone else have fun, so the boozers never showed up. Eventually people lost interest and the reunions stopped.

Now my sister and a cousin have invited all us cousins (about 30) to my sister's house in Michigan. It will be interesting to see who shows up (and with what). I'm going totally prepared with 24 cans of Heineken... just in case the jesus freaks start up with their usual BS again.

BTW... I have no idea why I was born into the "wrong" side of the family.

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